During the finale of Robert Smith’s “CURÆTION” of the 25th annual Meltdown Festival in London, The Cure with their current lineup of Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Jason Cooper, Roger O’Donnell, Reeves Gabrels, performed under the guise of “CURÆTION-25”, ahead of the band’s official 40th Anniversary gig in Hyde Park scheduled for July 7th.
This not so secret concert closed the 9 day long festival with a special performance “going there and back again”, by selecting a track from each album in chronological order ascending and descending the band’s catalog.
When the concert began, the band made their grand entrance to the stage at the Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre, with numerous bands and music journalists in attendance joining the lucky fans who were able to score tickets to this special events.
Josh Cheon from Dark Entries Records spotted a few noted Cure collaborators in attendance, such as J. Mascis, director Tim Pope, producer Dave Allan, and Frank Bell the postman who sang the Cult Hero songs.
The first part of the set commenced with title track from the band’s 1979 debut LP Three Imaginary Boys, followed then by a selection of deep cut album tracks and non-lead singles. leading up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream and beyond with the unreleased song “It Can Never Be The Same”.
Setlist Part 1 (From Here To There)
- Three Imaginary Boys
- At Night
- Other Voices
- A Strange Day
- Bananafishbones
- A Night Like This
- Like Cockatoos
- Pictures Of You
- High
- Jupiter Crash
- 39
- Us or Them
- It’s Over
- It Can Never Be The Same
After a brief interval to switch out some guitars, the second half began with the other unreleased song “Step Into The Light”, going back from 4:13 Dream to the classic songs One Hundred Years on Pornography, Primary on Faith, A Forest on Seventeen Seconds, and Boys Don’t Cry.
Setlist Part 2 (From There To Here)
- Step Into The Light
- The Hungry Ghost
- alt.end
- Last Day Of Summer
- Want
- From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
- Disintegration
- If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
- Sinking (Great footage, click here to watch)
- Shake Dog Shake
- One Hundred Years
- Primary
- A Forest
- Boys Don’t Cry
To the disappointment of those attending, and to the relief of those who could not make it, there were no special guests, or special interpretations of songs as promised in the festival billing.
There was however, apparently a promise from the band at the set’s closing “See You Next Year”, hinting at another world tour for 2019.
Listen to the full set via @Snuffybear
Note: The default setting on the video is mute, you must unmute it to listen to the audio.
— Snuffybear (@Snuffybear) June 24, 2018
Have I died and gone to heaven, no it is just @thecure at the @meltdownfest with my main man @tiernanm14 pic.twitter.com/w2Ee2C8OHt
— thomas mason (@nuclearmaso) 24. Juni 2018
Well that was fun – one song off every album starting from the beginning up to the most recent – then back again #MeltdownFest #Cureation25 #TheCure pic.twitter.com/CZNTVf1bf0
— gdpreston (@gdpreston) June 24, 2018
@CraigatCoF event shirt back pic.twitter.com/J2ugK0azdb
— Jurassic Mark (@mrmarkreed) June 24, 2018
LOVED going there to here and back again tonight with @thecure, couldn’t have enjoyed it more. also @pumarosamusic who were superb, and also @thetwilightsad with their moving dedication of the entire set to scott, of @FRabbits. A fitting end to a seriously amazing Meltdown. pic.twitter.com/22bnLHUHJc
— Naomi Dryden-Smith (@nomeshome) 25. Juni 2018
Heade Photo by IG User: musictravellers
@RobertSmith @thecure @reevesgabrels @simon_gallup #jasoncooper @meltdownfest #MeltdownFest25 closed the festival. A great 10 days! What a finish! @southbankcentre #CUREARTION25 #RobertSmith pic.twitter.com/6o9YCGP3Wx
— MKP (@MKPlondon) 25. Juni 2018
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